June 16, 1996

Milio Azcarraga Milmo usually travels with an entourage befitting the most powerful media mogul in Mexico. With his baronial bearing and distinctive appearance -- a stripe of white hair bisects his jet-black mane -- Mr. Azcarraga lives up to his nickname, "El Tigre." On a bright, cold morning in January, however, Mr. Azcarraga turned up alone at the home of Mary Anselmo in Greenwich, Conn. And on that day at least, the tiger acted more like a tabby.

The 22-year-old system of Federal limits on campaign donations and spending is falling apart because candidates, parties and unions have figured out how to get around the rules established by the Federal Election Commission, using First Amendment protections carved out by the Supreme Court. The system invented after Watergate is almost as porous as its predecessors, and there are many examples: Bob Dole's gymnastics on the edge of the Presidential spending limit, the "issue advertisements" that both parties are running with their Presidential candidates' faces dominating the television screen, the "educational advertisements" that the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is buying with union dues and the soaring "soft money" contributions frequently from corporations or unions.

TO hear President Clinton tell it, it was "all an innocent bureaucratic snafu," this seamy saga of the White House gaining access to confidential Federal Bureau of Investigation files on prominent Republicans -- files it had no business seeing. "I'm sorry that it occurred," Mr. Clinton said. Clinton apologists like Ann Lewis of his campaign committee and Leon Panetta, the White House chief of staff, chimed in with similar comments, blaming a low-level aide, an outdated list and a benign effort to define who should be allowed regular access to the White House. No "enemies list" was involved, they insisted, nor any attempt to gain unfair political advantage.

What will Air France, Japan Air Lines, Korean Air and Lufthansa German Airlines have in common by 1998?

Why not just throw your wallet out the window and save everyone a lot of time and trouble? There comes a time when that nasty thought occurs to even the fiercest proponent of investor protection.